From trivial questions to tip-offs on major crimes and law-related queries, the Bengaluru city police’s social media wing receives hundreds of complaints every day. To streamline the grievances it receives on social media, the police will be integrating emergency and non-emergency messages with the dial 100 control room. Citizens will receive a unique ID once they file a complaint on Facebook, Twitter or WhatsApp. They have already started a trial run of this new system.
Currently, the city police’s social media wing keeps a check on posts on social media platforms and replies to each one individually.
“In the new system, personnel in the wing will classify the complaint as an emergency or a non-emergency alert, and prepare a case-sheet with necessary details,” a police source said.
Once the separate case sheet is prepared, the complainant and the respective police personnel at the wing will be linked to a personal chat window.
“After collecting necessary details, the case will be sent to the dispatcher in the main control room who will forward it to the respective Hoysala vehicle nearest to the complainant,” the source added.
For non-emergency cases, the complainant will be forwarded to the respective police station that will then take up the investigation and close it when finished. “The Hoysala team will alert the dispatcher,” said a senior police officer.
The complainants will get a unique ID number with which they can track the progress of the case on the citizen portal. “This is the first time social media is being integrated with emergency services,” the source said.
Panic Button App
The Bengaluru City police will be launching a panic button in the form of a mobile application that can be downloaded and used by citizens. At present, the SOS app for safety assistance has been developed for the Android platform.
If a person clicks on the app, it will allow a five-second audio and video recording of the emergency, which will be sent to the police control room.
